The No. 2 Concord Christian Academy Kingsmen hosted and beat No. 7 Groveton (12-8), 61-56, in the D-IV boys’ basketball playoffs on Thursday night, advancing to the semifinals and extending their unbeaten streak to 20 games. 

The Kingsmen have blown their competition out of the water all season, but in the playoffs, teams have been showing up ready to slay giants and taken them down to the wire in tight games. In the prelims, they stayed ahead of No. 15 Pittsburg-Canaan throughout most of the game thanks to their impressive depth.

Against the Eagles in Thursday’s quarterfinal, they did not have to rely on their depth as much, but that’s because the game was too close to risk not having their best on the court. In the first half, CCA found its groove and went ahead five points after the first quarter, and doubled that lead to 10 at the half. Senior guard TJ Charbono lit it up from the perimeter and knocked down four 3s in the first half to put his team ahead. 

Groveton’s fight continued in the second half, boosted by their very loud and large crowd that drowned out the Kingsmen’s fans at home, and came out of the gate strong. The Eagles generated more turnovers with a full-court press and forward Ashton Kenison scored 10 for Groveton by making tough shots all over the court to keep his team in the game.

“They got a lot of people that showed out, they had to drive two hours, but they still had a ton of fans they packed it, but we kept our composure, our ability to slow it down and just control the game. We kept our heads,” Charbono said.

As seen time and time again this season, the Kingsmen kept their heads cool, trusted their ball movement and stayed ahead. The team, led by head coach Greg Farland, improved its rebounding, and pretty much every one of the CCA players hauled in a pair of rebounds throughout the game as they constantly switched off and on the ball to disrupt the Eagles.

“We have to remember who we are, we have to remember how we play and a big part of it is just maintaining our composure and staying calm in the chaos,” Farland said. “That’s the message that I give my guys all the time, if you want to be a great team in those tense moments, you have to be calm in the chaos, and so we focused on that a lot.”

Sophomore guard Luke Farland and Charbono distributed the ball well to get their teammates into good positions and all five of the Kingsmen showed their strengths defensively, contesting well in the paint and tipping tons of passes around the perimeter. Charbono ended the night with 23 points and Farland followed him closely with 16 points.

The tricky thing for CCA will be to continue facing opponents from up north that they have not faced in the regular season. Pittsburg-Canaan and the Eagles both gave them trouble at times, and part of that is the unfamiliarity with the teams. The Kingsmen will face another unknown, and much tougher opponent – last year’s runner-up and this year’s No. 3 Littleton (17-3) – on Monday night at Laconia High School. 

Concord Christian will tip off its biggest test of the season at 5:30 p.m. as the Kingsmen look to stay undefeated and punch a ticket to the D-IV championship.

“Same as it was tonight and that is playing the kind of defense we want to play, making the other team uncomfortable and playing the offense that we brought playing our style of basketball. I think those are going to be the keys,” coach Farland said.

Alexander Rapp can be reached at arapp@cmonitor.com